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Not all that glitters is gold. But in my life, if I am not exposed often to some serious nuggets, I sink into a dark pit of self-generated beliefs that nothing is gold and that human beings have all the world considerations of a slug. Maybe not that much.
Then I spend a bit of time watching TED Talks or listening/watching RSA talks. While they aren't all bright and shiny, they glitter and throw rainbows of light into the gloom of my despair over the superstitious, ignorant collective of humanity.
I do not think we are will measured by our engineering feats like putting men on the moon or smart phones and the like. Many insects are great at engineering. Rather, I think we are will measured by our ability to philosophize and to create (though we are terrible at execution) that which sustains such enterprises as ending world hunger or putting an end to easily prevented diseases in the parts of the world that even developing.
We don't work at stopping world hunger and the like because of some immediate primate need to protect our particular troop. We do engage in instinctual protectionist behavior under the guise of nationalism or god given directives, but those are not the drives that call us to give of our resources and ourselves when something tragic happens half way around the world or in our own "back yard."
And it isn't the doing of the "good things" that inspire me; it is the thought that goes into understanding ourselves and our place in the world as a member of the collective of life on this cosmic spec.
Without the intellectual bent that a small fraction of our billions engage in -- whether it is in physics (Higgs Boson, anyone), or psychology, or art -- that gives me the warmth of heart that I need to feel like being a human being is a good thing. Otherwise I'm just another primate with a stick looking for a termite mound.
That doesn't meant that any of it is important or has intrinsic worth. Really, who cares what our place is? Eventually we will be a footnote in the cosmic encyclopedia, if we are lucky.
It just gives me a reason to hate everyone. :)
Then I spend a bit of time watching TED Talks or listening/watching RSA talks. While they aren't all bright and shiny, they glitter and throw rainbows of light into the gloom of my despair over the superstitious, ignorant collective of humanity.
I do not think we are will measured by our engineering feats like putting men on the moon or smart phones and the like. Many insects are great at engineering. Rather, I think we are will measured by our ability to philosophize and to create (though we are terrible at execution) that which sustains such enterprises as ending world hunger or putting an end to easily prevented diseases in the parts of the world that even developing.
We don't work at stopping world hunger and the like because of some immediate primate need to protect our particular troop. We do engage in instinctual protectionist behavior under the guise of nationalism or god given directives, but those are not the drives that call us to give of our resources and ourselves when something tragic happens half way around the world or in our own "back yard."
And it isn't the doing of the "good things" that inspire me; it is the thought that goes into understanding ourselves and our place in the world as a member of the collective of life on this cosmic spec.
Without the intellectual bent that a small fraction of our billions engage in -- whether it is in physics (Higgs Boson, anyone), or psychology, or art -- that gives me the warmth of heart that I need to feel like being a human being is a good thing. Otherwise I'm just another primate with a stick looking for a termite mound.
That doesn't meant that any of it is important or has intrinsic worth. Really, who cares what our place is? Eventually we will be a footnote in the cosmic encyclopedia, if we are lucky.
It just gives me a reason to hate everyone. :)
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